Three Laments

Three reflections on lament today. See what strikes you.

Aren’t your eyelids

Tired of keeping

Prisoners? Those tears

Are precious

Minerals. Lap them up

Like medicine –

It’s called healing.

- Cole Arthur Rile

It is crucial to comprehend a lament is as far from complaining or grumbling as a search is from aimless wandering. A grumbler has already reached a conclusion, shut down all desire and postures with questions that are barely concealed accusations. . . . A lament involves even deeper emotion because a lament is truly asking, seeking, and knocking to comprehend the heart of God. A lament involves the energy to search, not to shut down the quest for truth. It is passion to ask, rather than to rant and rave with already reached conclusions. A lament uses the language of pain, anger, and confusion and moves toward God. - Dan Allendar

A prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord: hear my prayer, Lord; let my cry for help come to you. - Psalm 102:1